|
Pinyin | qī (first tone) |
| English | 7; seven |
| A little like 'tchee' as in the starting of 'chicken' |
Is it a coincidence that this looks remarkably like an upside down 'continental' arabic seven ? Perhaps it is but it certainly makes it easier to remember.
One of the arguably poor features of the 'pinyin' romanization is the use of 'q' and 'x' for consonant sounds, as they bear no resemblance to their sound in English.
In fact 'q' is pronounced rather like 'tch' and has a sharper sound than 'ch'. It is easy to confuse Chi and Qi when starting to learn Chinese.
